


Morning After Hero Syndrome

by CardboarianNights



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Gabe doesn't join the military, Love Confessions, M/M, Medic!Gabe, On the Run AU, age gap, alternative universe, cute older men being domestic, everything else is the same, gabe is thirty-five though so i don't think that's even triggery?, non-sexual bdsm relationship, takes place the morning after the 'hero' trailer, ten years?, unorthodox way to admit your love?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CardboarianNights/pseuds/CardboarianNights
Summary: The vigilante, Soldier 76, tries to take down Los Muertos and saves a little girl who just wanted her wallet back.Gabriel Reyes, his partner with a medical background, is the one that has to patch him up late into the morning hours and also do some humanitarian/recon work not even a few hours later without sleep.Jack is aware of how lucky he is to have such a great partner that stuck with him through thick and thin since the Omnic Crisis.





	Morning After Hero Syndrome

“Up and at ‘em, Jackie.”

Jack groaned and pulled the comforters tighter around his body before pushing his face into Gabriel's pillow. The sound of curtain rings dragging across a pole nearby meant that his roommate and dom had pulled the curtains open to let the morning sun in. Jack just balled himself up even tighter on the shitty fold out couch bed, resisting the younger med student’s attempt to drag him out of their shared bed at this ungodly early hour in the morning.

“I just got shot last night, Gabe. Why do you insist on doing this to me?” Jack groaned, his voice hoarse and strained from screaming after Gabriel spent hours digging shrapnel out of his legs from the grenade that almost killed him last night.

Thank God they lived on the outskirts of Dorado where no one would file a noise complaint against them. The shack they live in is bad enough but beats forcing Gabriel to rough the elements with him. A rusty old window was pulled open nearby after considerable exertion on Gabriel’s end, probably badly in need of some wd-40 like everything else in this shitty place. Gabe probably turned the AC unit off to save on money like the reliable mobile accountant he was and Jack was ironically more blessed by it than not.

Gabriel Reyes was thirty years old when Zurich went up in flames. He was already Jack’s live-in-dom long before then but unfortunately had to cut his medical schooling short after he dragged Jack’s sorry ass out of the rubble and went on the run with him. Hard to believe they’ve maintained some form of mutual companionship that would make Gabriel abandon his dream of getting a doctorate and moving up on the world. At least his medical schooling is paying off by keeping both them and the few strangers that help them alive while Jack goes to stick it to the assholes who brought down Overwatch that day years ago. 

“Jack, all I want you to do is show me your legs and I’ll let you go back to sleep after a check up. I’m fucked if you kick the bucket, you know.” Gabriel offers, first in a sincere manner before tossing in that old, salty sarcasm of his that always makes Jack comply with his wishes.

Jack feels like he slept with ten sandbags on his head but managed to pull himself up and put his back up against the old, battered and stained couch cushions. Gabriel came around, wearing only his boxers like Jack was from how hot it gets in the morning in Dorado, and pulled the blankets off Jack to reveal his wrapped up legs. Jack watched through heavily lidded eyes as Gabriel walked off to grab the full-sized first aid bag from the table to place it on the bed before dragging the wastebin over from where it was strategically placed on Jack’s side of the bed in case he had to throw up. Gabriel then started trimming the wrapped gauze with bandage scissors to start unraveling it and tossing it into the trash bag-lined can. 

Jack noticed how nicely Gabriel’s beard was shaped as he watched the younger man go to work. He was baby faced for so long during the Omnic Crisis when Jack hauled him out of the ruins of California with the only condition that he watch out for Jack’s health. The guy refused to be left behind after helping Jack’s team blow the omnium that tore his state to pieces and risking his life for the greater good even though he wasn't anything but a very brave man unlike the specialists on Jack’s team. He’s bulked up considerably since then through rigorous training and missions after he was thoroughly prepared to work alongside Jack and his team. The guy has a lot more scars now too, Jack noticed sadly.

“Am I going to live, Doc?” Jack joked lightly, making a small smile tug on those lips as Gabriel glanced up a moment from Jack’s legs as he examined the healing wounds.

“Depends.” Gabriel remarked with a smirk lifting one side of his lips. “You got your collar on?”

Jack reaches up and lightly plays with the O-ring on the front of his beaten collar with a smirk on his own lips. He flicked it back and forth to make it rattle slightly as he looked down at a beautiful pair of brown eyes looking up at his. Jack might be older and have a silver fox-look but he knew who he belonged to. The collar was one of the few things that survived Zurich that Jack still has today.

Now, if only Jack wasn't so chicken shit to admit his affection for Gabriel Reyes…

“You got your collar on? You get to keep your doctor and your legs, Morrison.” Gabriel laughed, giving Jack a playful wink that had the older man’s heart squeezing almost painfully in his chest.

“Such a nice ‘insurance card’ to have.” Jack grinned in amusement as he let his hand come down to lay down by his side as he let out a long yawn.

Gabriel went to work on cleaning up the the damage that hadn’t healed completely over last night, mostly the burn damage from the explosion since SEP was good at fixing up everything else when all the debris was removed. While SEP helped with a healing factor it couldn’t exactly numb the pain, something that Gabriel was all to aware of at this point as he finished cleaning up the wounds, applied disinfectant, pressed clean gauze to the open wounds before wrapping it all back up with bandage gauze. “How’s your pain, Big Guy?” Gabriel asked as he stood up and started to pack up the med bag.

“Maybe a three? Four, if I try moving them.” Jack sheepishly admitted. “Probably best If I sleep in today.” He yawned, bringing a hand up to muffle it as he felt pinpricks of tears in the corners of his eyes. “Can I lie down now?”

“After I get you something for the pain, Tough Guy.” Gabriel grinned as he carrier the med bag over to the table next to the bed to lay it on there next to the many maps Jack had laid out of Dorado and several key buildings. He picked up one of the markers that fell off the table and clattered onto the floor before lightly tossing it back onto the center of the map Jack had laid out. 

Jack knew that Gabriel intentionally kept all pills separate from the med bag incase they had to ditch a hideout immediately, which wasn’t as uncommon as you would hope it would be while being on the run. His little stunt at Helix and making off with a pulserifle certainly put himself in the spotlight but, thankfully, spared Gabriel any attention. Gabriel never goes with Jack when he heads out in the night, focusing on doing humanitarian work and getting in good with the locals to get them information, supplies, or routes to supplies if they desperately needed it. No one was going to turn down a guy with extensive medical experience (after all the years he spent digging and sowing Jack’s shit up).

Gabriel came back with a bottle of water in one hand and pills in the other, kneeling down on the bed next to Jack to hand them over to him. Jack smiled at that and took the opened bottle of water to down the two liquid gel capsules Gabriel placed into his hand. After that, Jack handed him back the water bottle and slid back down onto the shitty mattress carefully to get more sleep after he pulled the thin sheet over his body. The bed dipped as Jack closed his eyes, feeling Gabriel now standing over him before a rattle and hum alerted him to a ceiling fan being turned on before Gabriel hopped off back to the floor. 

“Sorry. Figured you would want the fan on.”

Jack rolled his eyes at that but wasn’t annoyed as he laid over on his stomach and buried his hands under his pillow before resting the side of his face against it. “Hopefully it won’t start a fire.” He sighed before letting his heavy eyelids roll shut.

That, unfortunately, was enough to give Gabriel pause before he climbed back up on the bed and making Jack groan in annoyance. Gabriel turned it off before he climbed back off, giving Jack a gentle pat on the back in apology before walking over to one of Jack’s travel bags to start digging into it. Jack was in the process of drifting off as he heard a chair being set in front of his face and something clicking on to start blowing cool air over him. Gabriel found the portable cooling unit, it seems.

“You better bring back two spare batteries for that, Reyes.” Jack yawned, his eyes still closed but alert enough to listen to Gabriel move about the shack and get dressed. 

“Wouldn’t think of putting us in a compromising position, Morrison.” Gabriel spoke sarcastically, making the side of Jack’s lip curl upwards in amusement. 

Jack heard the ruffling of clothing and the clanking of a belt before Gabriel’s feet pattered over the wooden floor to the other side of the shack. The crinkling of paper drew Jack’s focus and listened as Gabriel walked over to the counter in the kitchen before a pencil began scribbling in the distance. Jack normally would drift off at this point with anyone else and under any other circumstances but he wanted to make sure Gabriel didn’t need anything from him before he headed off for a few hours. 

“What do you want for lunch? I have a half pint of milk in the mini fridge and some cereal if you’re hungry.” Gabriel asked, drawing Jack out of his slow slide into sleep.

“Anything. Not picky.” Jack mumbled.

“Okay. So, you want extra hot sauce and peppers on-”

“Fuck off, Gabe.” Jack growled quietly as he took one hand out from under the sheet over him and flipped off his best friend, drawing a sweet laugh from Gabriel in return. He pulled his hand back under the sheet with a relaxed smile on his face from Gabriel’s laugh and nuzzled the side of his face into his pillow more. “You know what I mean.”

“Alright. I’ll be nice since you really need to eat today to compensate for your healing.” He remarked as the paper was folded up and tucked into Gabriel’s bag before it was then thrown over his shoulder. “You got your buzzer?”

Jack opened one of his eyes before reaching under his pillow to touch at his wrist, frowning when he felt the absence of the band the emergency buzzer was on. “No.” He spoke before pushing himself up and groaning at how much his legs ached, Gabriel walking over and kneeling down by Jack’s clothing pile from last night to start digging into it.

“Lay down, Jackie. I’ll find it.” Gabriel insisted as he started his search with Jack’s ‘76’ jacket, digging through the pocket and sleeves to see if it got caught anywhere where Gabriel was stripping him down for a physical last night. 

The buzzers were how they alerted each other to one of them being in distress and sending out a homing ping to help guide them quickly to the other in the lowest tech way as possible. It was an invention Torbjorn was working on way back at one of the Watchpoints but was left behind after Overwatch was dismantled. Gabriel got it working after a few months of playing with it and those were the only features that he could get to work without fail. It saved their lives many times when they were separated but it also could cause problems if anyone were to ever figure out how to hack into it. Hence why they only use it in emergencies to lower the chances of anyone catching onto their usage of it.

“Found it.” Gabriel remarked as he held up a firm metallic bracelet with a red button latched under a small cage that could easily be flipped up and off with several winds of a band on the side of the disk holding the button in its center. The device was small and flat enough to not hurt Jack or cut off his circulation under his gloves while being firm enough to not break easily from impact, like they’ve experienced many, many times.

Gabriel lightly tossed the bracelet into Jack’s hand and lifted up his own arm to show Jack that he was wearing his buzzer as well. They both then proceeded to test the devices, one after the other, to make sure they were in working order before shutting them off and locking them back up under the cages. Jack felt better after slipping the band on and tightening it securely to his wrist before laying back down on the bed like he was before. He plopped the side of his face onto his pillow after pulling the sheet up and over his shoulders to get comfortable as Gabriel got up.

“Alright. I’ll see you in a few hours, Jackie. Sleep well.” Gabriel remarked as he walked over to the front door and put on his sandals.

Jack hummed in response and let himself finally drift off after he heard the door close behind Gabriel and the many manual locks latch into place on the other side of the door.

\--

“Wow. You’re still asleep, Jackie?” Gabriel spoke in amazement, drawing Jack out of his sleep as he opened his eyes and rolled over to see Gabriel close the front door with his foot. He had three brown shopping bags in his arms as he walked over to deposit them on the kitchen counter before going back to lock up all the dead bolts.

Jack groaned as he pushed himself off the mattress and dragged himself over into a sitting position where the musty old couch cushions could prop up his back. He brought a hand up to run through his sweaty, snow white hair before dragging it over his scarred face with his other one to rub the sleepiness out of him. His whole body ached but he figured it was from the mattress being a piece of shit than Gabriel not accounting for pain elsewhere. Gabriel had a foil-wrapped burrito in each hand that he dug out of the bags and walked over to place both of them on Jack’s lap. Nice, warm, and smelt absolutely amazing to his growling stomach.

“I got you four but just try to slowly work on two. Let me get you a tray so you don’t make a goddamn mess on my side of the bed.” Gabriel remarked as he went back over to the kitchen to dig out the foldable food tray from the strainer by the sink and took the water bottle from earlier out of the mini fridge then carried both items over to Jack. 

He set the water bottle next to the portable AC unit and unfolded the tray. Jack lifted up both burritos and set them on the tray after Gabriel placed it down on his lap. The super soldier quickly unwrapped the top portion of the hefty burrito and bit into it, practically moaning at how delicious the chicken burrito was as Gabriel dragged another chair over to the bed before going to get his own burrito and water bottle. Gabriel seemed pleased at Jack’s appetite as he unwrapped the top of his tamales to start eating as well.

Jack raised a brow at Gabriel eating the thin meal before looking down at his stuffed burrito. “You’re just going to eat one tamale?” He asked after swallowing the morsel and set his burrito down on his tray before reaching for his water bottle.

Gabriel rolled his eyes at that before lightly punching Jack in the shoulder. “You joking me? You might earn the majority of our paycheck but I earn us your tickets inside, Smartass.” He grinned, setting the foil wrapped tamale on his lap in exchange for his water bottle he had place next to Jack’s on the chair next to him. “Unlike you, I just don’t feel like eating all of it at once.” 

Jack smirked before taking another bite of his burrito, noting how packed it was with lettuce and tomatoes along with the notable strong absence of refried beans in it. He swallowed the bit down before gesturing to Gabriel with it. “Someone’s trying to pass off a chicken salad in a tortilla and call it a ‘burrito’. Any ideas on who it could be?” Jack smugly asked as he waved the open end of the burrito towards Gabriel almost lazily.

Gabriel pursed his lips together at that and looked over his shoulder. “Must have been the mice.”

Jack chuckled in amusement before pulling his burrito back and lightly patted Gabriel’s knee with his free hand to fuck with him. “Ten bucks says my real order is in one of those bags in the kitchen.”

“Ten bucks gets my foot up your ass if you even think about getting out of bed, Morrison.”

Jack brought a hand to his chest dramatically at that as he regarded Gabriel in mock offense. “How violent! What will my mother say about her favorite cooking buddy if she heard how terrible you treat me now?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes at that before taking a bite out of his tamale and chewing on it slowly with an unimpressed look on his face. “Your mom thinks we’re both dead, Jackie.”

“You don’t know my mother as well as you think you do.” Jack huffed as he stuck his nose up in the air.

“Jack. I’ve been your friend for fifteen years and we’ve visited your house every year for Christmas, for two weeks, until everything blew up.” Gabriel deadpanned as he stared at his friend, bringing up his water bottle to take a slow sip from it, daring Jack to counter him on this matter.

Jack lowered his head and pursed his lips together in annoyance before bringing his burrito back up to bite into again. Gabriel had a smug smile on his lips at knowing he was right before capping his water bottle and setting it back on the chair. 

“You bought some sour cream at least, right?” Jack asked as he was a bit annoyed with how leafy the burrito was. 

“Yeah. Give me a minute.” Gabriel got up from his chair and continued munching on his tamales, tossing the corn wrapper into the covered trash bin in the kitchen before digging into one of the bags to pull out another wrapped tamale, hot sauce, and a few, small sour cream packets. He plopped back down in the chair and placed two of the packets and the small hot sauce bottle on the chair they were using as a table before handing one sour cream packet to Jack. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Gabriel spoke as he unwrapped his tamale and put a splash of hot sauce on the tip before chowing down.

It was nice to have this kind of downtime with Gabriel even though they were- well, HE, was a criminal on the run, but technically Gabriel was aiding him so that would make him a criminal too. He really couldn’t fathom taking on the whole world by himself and yet Gabriel stood beside him through all the early failures that would have gotten him killed before Jack wised up on his tactics. Gabriel was a constant presence by his side and Jack never really showed Gabriel the appreciation he deserved for bailing his ass out time and time again.

Jack ripped the top off the sour cream packet and squeezed a small amount on top before bringing it the burrito to his mouth to eat. The guy really knew how to care for him in more ways than just clinical. Always bringing him something back that he knew Jack might ask for that he wouldn’t think of needing, even if it was just a ‘new’ set of pillows he bought to help them both sleep better at night. Gabriel Reyes deserved so much more out of life than running around with a vigilante when he should be moving on from Overwatch to start living his own life. 

Instead, he just stuck by Jack’s side and did what he always did even back during the crisis…

He eventually finished up his first burrito and tossed the foil wrap into the trash bin filled with used gauze and bandages. Jack brought his gaze over to Gabriel as he continued to tap a few drops of hot sauce on his tamale before taking a bite; rinse and repeat until the corn husk was tossed into the trash. It was only then that Gabriel noticed Jack was watching him and helped up his palms before swallowing what was in his mouth.

“If you’re looking to snatch a bite, it’s already gone.” He grinned, making Jack laugh at how easily they could make jabs at each other.

Still, the mood was light enough to bring up a question that was always in the back of Jack’s mind.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you, Gabe?”

Gabriel seemed surprised at that sudden confession and watched as he brought a hand back to rub bashfully on the back of his neck. “I… I always kind of assumed, Jackie, but, isn’t it kind of jinxing things to just… put a name on what it is?” He asked, avoiding direct eye contact with Jack.

Jack felt his heart began to rapidly beat in his chest as he flushed from the tips of his ears down to his collar bone. He didn’t expect Gabriel to just- Holy fuck! He felt the room grow significantly hotter than it already was even though he had the portable AC unit still blowing directly on himself. His fingers tapped rapidly on the plastic tray as he found himself nipping on his lower lip.

“Of course! There’s nothing wrong since we both know the obvious, right? Hasn’t jinxed us yet!” Jack reassured Gabriel with a smile, trying to not make this revealing event awkward or anything even though it practically blinded sided Jack.

Gabriel seemed to relax at Jack’s reassurance of mutual understanding of not wanting to tempt fate or some shit. At least now it was out between them that they had something sweet for one another, something that had Jack absolutely smittened to hell and back over Gabriel. That blunt honesty was just so endearing and the fact that he didn’t want anything bad to come about because it was put out in the open? He couldn’t stop a goofy smile from forming on his face at that.

“Yeah. You got a good point.” Gabriel smiled, seeming relieved to hear the reassurance from Jack on that. “For once.”

Jack smirked in amusement and rolled his eyes sarcastically at Gabriel. The guy had him on that one. There was a reason bandages were always in short supply for them on this prolonged outing of revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> just a little short story idea that I had. Let me know if you like the idea!


End file.
